State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for additional funding to improve universities on the Texas-Mexico border.
In a letter sent to Dewhurst last month, Shapleigh wrote “one thing we should not continue is a historic underfunding of border universities, the ramifications of which are still with us today.”
Shapleigh’s proposal follows the South Texas Border Initiative that was passed in 1989, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In the suit, the organization claimed that the state has discriminated against the Hispanic population by not providing the necessary funds for colleges along the border.
As a result of the lawsuit, $460 million was allocated to help fund nine four-year border region universities during the last 20 years.
“All across the world, higher education unlocks the potential of humans. Where great universities exist, economic endeavor follows,” Shapleigh said. “Right now in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, 1 million Texans lack key programs to allow that region to prosper.
From El Paso to San Antonio and down to Corpus Christi, there are fewer Ph.D. programs than at Texas Tech alone.”
The Hispanic population in Texas is projected to be the majority by 2020 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. One in four Texans now lives in border-town counties, Shapleigh said.
“These are some of the fastest growing counties in the nation,” Shapleigh said. “The systematic underfunding of these areas will cost Texas for generations to come.”
Benjamin Flores, University of Texas at El Paso professor and UT System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation director, said that for a long time, schools like UTEP, UT-Brownsville and UT-Pan American have been committed to providing access to higher education.
“This type of access requires an infrastructure at the university level that can provide effective socio-academic support to non-traditional college students,” Flores said in an e-mail. “Although cost-effective in the long run, in its initial stages this infrastructure requires substantial support by the state.”
Located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, UTEP has the largest Mexican-American student population in the nation, consisting of 20,458 students and currently has 19 doctoral programs. With a student population of just over 28,000, Texas Tech University has 60 doctoral programs.
“Ultimately, the state of Texas can only benefit by democratizing higher education and by preparing future generations of citizens that will substantially contribute to the state economy,” Flores said.
In an effort to propel seven Texas public universities — including UTEP — to the level of national research institutions, or tier-one status, lawmakers recently approved a plan which would allow “emerging research universities” to compete for $475 million in funds.
The measure awaits the governor’s signature.
In order to be considered tier-one, universities must have awarded 200 Ph.D.s during each of the last two academic years. Shapleigh proposed that the Ph.D. requirement be reduced to 100, allowing schools to qualify if they had shown a net 20 percent growth of the number of Ph.D.s awarded over the past three fiscal years.
“This would allow border universities like UTEP and UT-San Antonio to compete alongside the other five schools that have been given a large head start in the number of doctoral programs,” Shapleigh wrote in his letter Dewhurst.
The amendment was defeated on a 20-11 vote.
Daniel Collins, a spokesman for Shapleigh, said in an e-mail that if given the opportunity in the special session, Shapleigh would definitely raise the new South Texas Border Initiative issue. However, special sessions only let legislators work on those issues that the governor mandates.
“When we return to Austin in July,” Shapleigh said, “We will sit down and talk to Lt. Gov. Dewhurst about organizing this effort.”
The El Paso senator said he is optimistic about the future of universities along the Texas-Mexico border.
“Great leadership will find the funds necessary to succeed,” he said. “In the ‘50s Dwight Eisenhower built the national highway system and in the ‘60s John Kennedy launched the space program.”
